When I was in public school, I was bullied by fellow students but the biggest bullies I had were teachers!

Yes, I remember several teachers being mean to me....mostly in elementary school. I think there was a racist element to it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by heatherdeg

As a homeschooling family, my son is not sheltered. He is supervised. By me. That means that I understand when he's in trouble because I know him better than his teacher (who may know them well by the end of the year--MAYBE--but that leaves a long span of time without that "knowing"). And I can pretty well guarantee you that I can supervise him far better than people whose time and attention is split among 12-30 other children (more if they're at recess).

This. ^

Quote:

Originally Posted by oceanbaby

The problem with hs'ing social groups is that there are no rules, really. Every family has their own rules, their own methods of discipline, and their own version of what is a problem. As a parent who pretty much is always paying attention to my kids and has very little tolerance for meanness, from any child, even my own, this was a big problem for us, and even before my son asked to start school we were starting to avoid most of our local homeschool social gatherings.

I have found this to also be true, and it is one of the potential "downsides" to homeschooling. We've been lucky enough to run into only a couple of problematic homeschooled kids....but yeah, they did put a damper on our social time, because my kids would want to avoid activities that those children would be attending. Both of those kids were pulled out of public school due to behavioral issues, and later went back to public school (probably because their parents couldn't deal with them at home), so their presence wasn't permanent among our social circles.

That's another thing to remember....there are plenty of homeschooled kids who weren't homeschooled from the beginning, as a lifestyle choice. A lot of them are homeschooled as a last resort because nothing else is working for them. Their family dynamics will be different, obviously.

My child is "bullied" jsut as much if not more at home by neighborhood kids than she was at her school. Shes never experienced more than common childhood minor occassional teasing though never anything big.

Deanna

Wife to DH since August 01 mom to a bubbly girl October 2002 and our newest gal March 2010

I personally don't see any need in purposefully exposing my child to such negativity and nastiness. The social construct of public schools is so artificial and on par with Lord of the Flies. Not for us.

That's fine if it's not for you, but Lord of the Flies? Really? I have had a LOT of experience with public schools, as a student, a student teacher (multiple times and schools) a teacher, and a parent of a student, multiple schools, who was bullied. Public schools have a lot of problems, smoe of which are the reasons I no longer teach. Politics are a big problem. But Lord of the Flies the vast majority are not.

I personally don't see any need in purposefully exposing my child to such negativity and nastiness. The social construct of public schools is so artificial and on par with Lord of the Flies. Not for us.

That's fine if it's not for you, but Lord of the Flies? Really? I have had a LOT of experience with public schools, as a student, a student teacher (multiple times and schools) a teacher, and a parent of a student, multiple schools, who was bullied. Public schools have a lot of problems, smoe of which are the reasons I no longer teach. Politics are a big problem. But Lord of the Flies the vast majority are not.

I always found schools a little Lord of the Flies-ish.

The issues are worse (IMHO) on the playground and bus - where the ratio of adults to kids is often very low.

I know this is not the experience of everyone, but it was mine.

I do think perception and expectation play a big part in interpretation of events. I also know adults interpret events differently than kids - what you may see as acceptable they might not, and vice versa. I think it can be very hard to know how much bullying etc goes on - and we interpret events through our own lens. I also think adults are frequently in denial about bullying, or alternately, they jump to conclusions.

Just a moderator note here - from here on out, please keep this discussion to the experiences with bullying you've had (or not had) while homeschooling. Discussions about what happens in schools are outside the purview of this forum (they belong in Learning at School). Schools vary widely, and while I don't discount anyone's experiences and bullying obviously does happen both inside and outside of schools, I think it's important to note that many, many children attending schools have minimal or no problems with bullying.